Cartridge feed belt for machine guns



June 24, 1947. J,- A HENDLEY 2,422,898

CARTRIDGE FEED-BELT FOR MACHINE GUNS Filed Aug. l2, 1943 2 Sheets-Sheetl June 24, 1947. l A, HENDLEY CARTRIDGE FEED-BELT FOR MACHINE GUNS FiledAug. 12, 194:5`

2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Patented June 24, 1947 UNS James-A.1Hendley,Middletown, Conn.; assignorv to The Russell Manufacturing Company,Middletown,Conn., a corporation-ofV Connecticut Application August 172,1943, serieuse. 198;291

Arcana; (cree- 35.)

rThis invention relatesto improvements in cartridgel feed-'belts 'formachine guns.

Oneobject of this invention is to provide animprovedcartridge'feed-beltunit so that a plurality o'such units can bereadily connected together by cartridges,`

Another object of this invention is to provide an improved process .ofmakingthe foregoing cartridge feed-belt unit.

With the above and other objects in View, as Willappear .to vthoseskilled in the art from the .present disclosure, this .inventionincludes all features in the said disclosure-which are. novel overtheAprior' art.

In thefaccompanying drawings, in which certain waysof carrying out theinvention are shown forillustrative purposes:

Fig. .1 is-an elevational view of a cartridge feed-.belt made inaccordance with the present invention and illustrating cartridges insome of the pockets thereof;

2;isan .enlarged sectional View on the line 2-2of Fig. 1;

F-ig..3.is'an enlarged sectional view on the line 3;.-3 oflFg. 1';

4 is vanenlarged elevational View of one ofthe'feed-belt units shown inFig. 1;

iFig.5 is .an edge view of Fig. 4;

Fig. '6 is..a.fragmental'view similartoFig. 210i a modified.construction;

vFig. '7 is an elevational View.' of a woven cartridge-feed-b'elt blankfrom which the unit-in Fig'..4 isi made;

Fig. 8' isfafront edgeview of Fig. 7;

Fig. v-9 iis a view .similar to Fig. 7 Yafter the blank of Figp'l hashad plastic applied to such p'ortionsrthereof as are-to be cut away toform thennit show-nfin 4, and with broken-line indicationsas' to Wherethe cuts are made to producethe-unit of Fig. 4, and with a broken-lineoutline lof a-pocketeforming ngerin a pocket;

vFigpl'll isa, longer 'section of a Woven cartridge feed-belt blanksimilar to Fig. 7; and

11l is a viewsimilar to Fig.10 after plastic has 'been applied along`the entire belt-blank 0f`Fig. l10'and with' broken-line indicationsindicating the lines of cut by'which'a plurality of units each similartothe unitshown in Figs. 4 and' 5 isproduced, but having plastic alongthe entire'surface instead of along only part of the surfaceas shown`in'Fig. 4.

fIn the description and claims, the various parts and steps areidentified by specific names for convenience; but they are intended tobe as gene'ricin their application as the prior art willjpermit. V'Incarrying out 'theinvention'in the particu# lar Wayillustrated in Figs.'1 to9 of the draw# ings,v the cartridge feed-belt 2U is formed ofy agroup or plurality of successive feedbelt units f2 2 l`. Each .unit-'2lgshown inz-t'he drawing is formed from fa blank :'22 shown in Figs. .7and.8 and which has twogpliesrof'fabric-M and 24-.and-is made in-anysuitable -way-as, forfexample, in accordancewith'my Patent No.2,061,0'72fgranted on Novemberf17.,:1936.

In Vmaking lavcartridge feed-belt .unitf'Zl ,likethatzshownxin:Figs.f4.andn5 from the blank122 shown in yFigsn'l and-8,plastic is rfirstappliedto the'two fendeportions '-25 and 26 :as 4shown.by stippling' on Fig. Y9,- after Whichpcrtionsare cut away asflindicated -by'broken lines,1toleave'the centralftongueloop-Z'l (Fig. '4).at one end. .-of the blank :and the spaced-.apartx tongue-loopsfZfandZS'With a strap-portion f30 connect-ing-theouter endsof the-spaced-aparttongue-loops 28-and 29 together.

In making `a :.Woven fabric cartridge feed-.belt for machine. guns; thevarious pockets :3 l thereof are made of a carefully-.predeterminedAsize so that when a cartridge is:forcedf- -into a pocket, the cartridgelwill be grippedvwithfa .predetermined lstrong gripzthatwillbevproper'to hold itin place and .yet Willypermit the .extractory ofthe mechanism. of the machine gun-to properly-extractpthe cartridge from.the belt. yInfapplying plastic-to the end portions of thebelt-sectionor blank-'or'.unit the; plast-ic is' applied to-opposite outsidejfacesof lthe plies in any. suitable Way. But in applying plastic to the wovenfabricma'-V terial, .the plastic gets lbetween fthe variousstrandswandbetweenthe; bers of thestr-andsy and thereby interferes withthe normal stretching abilityk of ta1pocket to which plastic: hasI beenap plied.. Therefore in order that such plastictreatedipockets or the.tongue-loops 21,128 .and 29made from such pocketsiandiwhich 'are Yto beutilized ltoconnect twounits together byenrieans of ;inserting Aacartridge 'through overlapped tongue'eloops, may :be large. enough toproperly receive cartridges, `it is necessary to'prestretch or rpreformsuch pockets-during lthe application of` theiplastic tothe` fabric.`T-his can be done by. forcibly inserting' :avpocket-forming linger -32into each of the en'dz-.pocket'sofga blanklto'which plastic iszto beapplied 'as is' illustrated invbrokenline outline at the ,rightehandNvend of Fig Plastic can then be rappliedfin. any: suitalclleV way as,.for example, by applying suitably heated thermoplastic material by .anysuit'able'means. Ortheplastic material can befforined as alsolution fbymeans of vafsolvent ina Well-known-W'ay and applied onlfasbylbrushinglor otherwise Vand permitting' the solvent* toV evaporate outto' leave theplastic in place. v-Tlie'plastic usedwilliprei erably'besuch'as haspliability when cold lso that'V the; parts 'ftlle beltv tolWillichv it' is v-applied still'willretain Yconsiderable plia-bilitya-ndil'exiu bility'. vBut theplasticfmay have suiiicientffor-ming-characteristicsso-that such 'pockets as have been stretched and havehad plastic applied the loops at the rightand left-hand ends of Fig. 5.

After the forming fingers32 have been removed and the plastic hasacquired its final solid vcon-` f dition, the belt-blank 22 such, forexample, as is v illustrated in Fig. 9 will have portions cutaway byydies or otherwise to leave thetongue-loops 21, 28 and 29 as illustratedin Fig. 4.

Instead of applying plastic onlyto such pockets as are to be formed intothe tongue-loops at the opposite ends of the belt-unit, the plastic canbe applied along the entirer length of both opposite faces of abelt-blank instead of merely on opposite faces of the end-pockets of abelt-blank. In this case, however, in order to avoid rthe needy of` anypre-stretching device such as 32- illustrated in Fig. 9, which wouldneed to be inserted into each of the pockets throughout the length ofthebelt or belt-blank, the pockets can be woven sufficiently larger thanthey would otherwise be Woven andthe plastic can'be applied upon theopposite faces of the belt-blank Without having any formingorstretching-fingers therein, since, inasmuch as the pockets will be wovensomewhat larger inthis case thanwould ordinarily be true',fit is f notnecessary that the pockets stretch so much upon the insertion of thecartridges, and therefore the pockets can be ofk just such size that theplastic on being applied to the opposite faces of the belt yjust bringabouty suflicient interference the desired proper degree.

35V In applying plastic along the entire length of w f both faces of abelt-blank 33 such as illustrated i in Fig.' 10, the plastic 34 isapplied thereon throughout as illustrated in Fig. l1 by the stippled fshowing over the entire surface thereof, and then the belt is cut upinto units or sections having tongue-loops at the opposite ends of eachunit or section in a similar manner as that illustrated in Fig. 4, as isindicated by the broken lines on Fig; l1.

Where belt-units are made with a small number of complete pocketstherein, such, for example, as from one on up to possibly twenty-five ormore, upon such belts being lled with cartridges and having each centraltongue-loop overlap and extend between the spaced-apart tongue-loops ofan adjacent similar feed-belt unit and the overlapping tongue-loopsconnected by a cartridgeA extending through all three of them, acartridge feed-belt for machine guns can be formed of beltunits whichwill be dispersible upon passing through the machine gun. In otherwords, as the machine gun is fired and the belt Passes out the far endof the feed-mechanism, the units of the belt become successivelydisconnected as each cartridge is pulled out from overlappingtongueloops which hold each two adjacent feed-belt units together, thuspermitting the outermost unit to fall away as is particularly usefulupon airplanes. vFor many other uses such, for example, as in tanks,upon ships, and in fixed locations on land, longer belt-units can beused. Each unit, for example may have a length up to one or two hundredcartridges or more. Thus where a` gunner has red all except, say, tencartridges of a belt-unit, and he desires to be prepared forcontinuously firing arlarge number of cartridges at the next 'need forfiring, itis merely necessary to connect the tongue-loop or tonguewiththe complemental tongue-loops or tongueloop of the front end of anotherbelt-unit that is all filled with cartridges, yso that the gunner canhave available more than one hundred cartridges for the next emergency.

The'inventi'on may be carried out in other speciiic Ways than thatherein set forth without departing from the spirit and essentialrcharactern comprising: a feed-belt unit formed of two-plies 'of yWoven;fabrcancl havingk at least one flexible complete` cartridge-receivingpocket and a cenf tral tongue-loop at one end andspaced-apart.tongue-loops at rthe other end with a strap-portion connecting the outerends yof said spacedloops of an adjacent similar feed-belt unit andmentioned feed-belt unitbeing constructed and arranged to be similarlyconnected to 4the *centrall tongue-loop of another similarfeed-beltunit, and each ysaid tongue-loop being flexible. and formed asan integral part of said feed-beltunit and of portions of said two pliesof woven fabric ofsubstantially equal length.

2.1Acartridge feed-belt unit for machineguns comprising: a fabricfeed-belt unit `formed of two plies of wovenfabric and having at leastone exible complete cartridge-receiving pocket and a flexibleplastic-treated central tongue-loop at one end and flexibleplastic-treated,spaced-apart tongue-loops at the other end with al,strapportion connecting the outer endsof said spacedapart tongue-loopstogether; the central tongueloop being constructed and arranged tooverlap and extend between the spaced-apart tongue-loops of an adjacentsimilar feed-belt unit and have a cartridge extend through the saidoverlapped loops to connectsaid two units together; and the spaced-aparttongue-loops of said first-mentioned feed-belt unit being constructedand arrangedto be similarly connected to the central tongue-loop ofanother similar feed-belt unit, and each said tongue-loop being flexibleand formed as an integral part of said feed-belt unit and of portions ofsaid two plies of woven fabric of substantially equal length. A Y

3. The process of making cartridge feed-belt units for machine gunscomprising: making a machine gun feed-belt unit blank formed of twoplies of woven fabric and having la plurality of cartridge-receivingpockets, and from which can be cut at least one feed-belt unit having atleast one flexible complete cartridge-receiving pocket and a centraltongue-loop at one end and spacedapart tongue-loops at the other endwith a strap-` portion connecting the outer ends of said spacedaparttongue-loops together, and the central tongue-loop being constructed andarranged to overlap and extend between the spaced-apart tongue-loops ofan adjacent similar feed-beltunit and have a cartridge extend throughsaid overlapped loops to connect said units together, and

loops at the rear end of the belt-'unit in the gun, 715 the yspaced-apart tongue-leerte of said firstmentioned feed-belt unit beingconstructed and arranged to be similarly connected to the centraltongue-loop of another similar feed-belt unit; and cutting at least onefeed-belt unit from said blank by cutting away opposite end portions ofa pocket at one end to leave the central portion of said pocket to formsaid central tongue-loop, and by cutting away the central portion of apocket at the other end to leave spaced-apart opposite end portions ofsaid pocket to form said spacedapart tongue-loops with a strap-portionconnecting the outer ends of said spaced-apart tongueloops together,each said tongue-loop being flexible and formed of portions of said twoplies of woven fabric of substantially equal length.

4. The process of making cartridge feed-belt units for machine gunscomprising: making a fabric machine gun feed-belt unit blank formed oftwo plies of woven fabric and having a plurality of cartridge-receivingpockets; and from which can be cut at least one feed-belt unit having atleast one exible complete cartridgereceiving pocket and a centraltongue-loop at one end and spaced-apart tongue-loops at the other endwith a strap-portion connecting the outer ends of said spaced-aparttongue-loops together, and the central tongue-loop being constructed andarranged to overlap and extend between the spaced-apart tongue-loops ofan adjacent similar feed-belt unit and have a cartridge extend throughsaid overlapped loops to connect said units together, and thespaced-apart tongue-loops of said rst-mentioned feed-belt unit beingconform said central tongue-loop, and by cutting away the centralportion of a pocket at the other end to leave spaced-apart opposite endportions of said pocket to form said spaced-apart tongueloops with astrap-portion connecting the outer ends of said spaced-aparttongue-loops together, each said tongue-loop being flexible and formedof portions of said two plies of Woven fabric of substantially equallength.

JAMES A. HENDLEY.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,337,971 Watkins Apr. 20, 19202,210,170 Harwood Aug. 6, 1940 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date598,511 France Jan. 27, 1927 334,596 Germany Mar. 15, 1921

